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17-08-03
Herðubreið, the summit of the
desert 
Where the glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum
runs along the Ódáðahraun desert, the tiny
little green oasis in between black sand is our starting point
for the rather difficult climb of the Herðubreið, the
1682m high summit in the desert.
The ascent has to be done from the west side of the
mountain. As the camp site is situated exactly opposite of it,
we had to drive half around the table mountain on probably one
of the worst tracks ever here. Almost impassable lava
alternating with dusty pumice fields. Now I understand why in
Iceland people modify their off-road cars to get extreme
ground clearance.
A 1000m ascent seams to be easy going but this is a volcano,
or better the inside left of it - as this table mountain
erupted under the ice during the ice age.
The first part of the ascent are mostly accumulated large
stones, then the worst and longest part over an exhausting
steep incline with loose gravel before very large rocks
indicate we were heading for the summit that still needs to
overcome the last steep slope to 1682m. Right before reaching
the top, a dizzy view into the crater is a nice surprise.
The panoramic view from the top down to the lava desert is
that kind of amazing I simply forgot I was on planet Earth...
[JK]
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The Queen of icelandic
mountains
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Where Iceland really
begins
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| Hold tight to the grip
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Difficult crossing of
lava fields |
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